


Interlude: Call It

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Marks [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 02:13:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7248001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Multiverse, Any, Deathbed Confession."</p>
<p>Patrick Sheppard has something to tell his sons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude: Call It

Dave wasn’t surprised when the maid announced that Nancy and Grant Sherman were at the door. Dave had called them as soon as he’d received the news about Dad. Heart attack. In the hospital. Prognosis wasn’t good. Dad wanted to see Jason before he died, wanted to say some final words to Nancy and Grant about the legacy he planned to leave for his grandson. Dave knew Dad loved Clara and Anna, but they were girls, and they wouldn’t inherit the family business unless Dave left something to them (and he wouldn’t, unless they wanted it). Jason Sheppard was special. Jason was Dad’s second chance, to succeed where he felt he’d failed with John.

Dad hadn’t taken the news about John discovering Jason’s existence well at all. There’d been no yelling, no accusations (Dave explained John had found the child support account during an annual payroll review with the Air Force). Dad simply pretended it...hadn’t happened. Acted like he always had, since John moved out to Stanford. Like John didn’t exist. If Jason mentioned his father, Dad simply moved the conversation along. The first time Jason mentioned Rodney, Dad had paused, done a double-take. When Jason clarified that Rodney was John’s boyfriend, Dad turned several different colors and then pretended that Rodney McKay didn’t exist.

So Dave was surprised when he got to the front door and John, Rodney, and Jason were on the front step with Nancy and Grant.

“We came as soon as we could,” Nancy said. 

“John,” Dave said, blinking.

“Jason wanted a chance to have an extra-special visit with his grandpa,” John said, and Dave nodded. No one would say a word about the tension between John and Dad, not in Jason’s presence.

Jason held up a folded piece of paper covered with dubious crayon drawings but better crayon writing. “I made Grandpa a get-well card,” he said.

“Come on in,” Dave said. “I’ll have the maids make up two more rooms. The chauffeur will ensure your luggage makes it inside.”

Kathy responded to emergencies better than Dave did, and she had Clara and Anna escort Jason down to the stables so they could see the horses, and then the adults gathered in the lounge for drinks. Rodney and John had only ice water, but Nancy accepted a little tumbler of whisky.

“How is he?” Nancy asked.

“Not good,” Dave said. “Not good at all. He doesn’t have much time.”

“When can we see him?” Grant asked.

Dad liked Grant, because he’d been such a good father for Jason. Grant had always kept his opinions about John to himself, but he seemed to get along with John and Rodney just fine.

“Visiting hours start at ten and end at eight,” Dave said. “I figured we’d all go tomorrow.”   


Grant nodded.

Dave cleared his throat. “John, will you be joining us at the hospital?”

Rodney reached out and closed his hand over John’s wrist, though whether it was in comfort or warning Dave didn’t know.

“I’ll go to the hospital,” John said, “because it will look odd to Jason if I don’t, but I won’t be in the same room as our father at the same time as Jason. Jason doesn’t need to be exposed to...that.”

Dave nodded.

“I’ll stay with you in the hallway,” Rodney said quietly.

That night, dinner was a subdued affair. John and Rodney didn’t do much to contribute to the stilted adult conversation, instead asking Clara and Anna how they were doing, how school was going, did they have big plans for spring break?

Jason asked John if they could go riding after dinner, and John explained he was pretty rusty because he hadn’t ridden on a horse for a long time. But maybe, if the three kids ate all their dinner and asked really nicely, Rodney would play the piano for them.

“I didn’t know you played,” Nancy said.

“I was trained as a concert pianist when I was younger,” Rodney said. “But my parents were more interested in my being a scientist than a musician, so I'm a physicist.” He eyed Clara and Anna. “What kind of music do you like?”

“Can you play the music from Beauty and the Beast?” Clara asked.

“The fairy tale?” Rodney blinked.

“The Disney cartoon,” Kathy explained.

“Never seen it. But if someone can find sheet music, I’m sure I could perform passably,” he said.

Anna and Clara looked pleased. Clara said, “Jason, you can be all the boy parts, and we’ll be all the girl parts.”

“Okay,” Jason said. Could he even sing?

After supper, everyone gathered in the music room where the piano was. Mom had played the piano. No one had touched it since she died, though the staff had been careful to keep it dust-free.

Dave wondered if Dad still changed the station whenever one of Mom’s favorite piano songs came on.

John had Rodney’s laptop open and was looking for appropriate sheet music. Then he had to act as music stand while Rodney peered at the music.

Anna, Clara, and Jason clustered near the piano, expectant.

Dave’s throat closed. Was the piano even still in tune?   


Of course it was, because Patrick Sheppard had the best of everything, even if he never used it. And Rodney was an excellent pianist. He could sight-read, and so as long as John held the laptop still and Grant acted as page turner (or mouse clicker), the song went along smoothly. Anna and Clara had decent voices, for Dave had inherited some of his mother’s musicality. John had never been a good singer. But Jason, as it turned out, was one, his voice sweet and high and clear.

Nancy filmed the little performance on her phone, and when it was done, everyone applauded.

If Dave didn’t know better, he’d think this was a perfectly friendly family get-together. He hadn’t thought the Sheppard house would ever see this, John and Rodney under the same roof as Nancy and Grant and Dave and Kathy, their children together and happy.

Dad’s shadow hung over it all.

Dad, who’d had Mom killed because she was Unmarked.

Dad, whose hatred of the Unmarked had driven John away.

Dad, who doted on Jason and Anna and Clara and was the best grandfather in the world to them.

Dad, who’d been a teacher and a mentor to Dave since his first day in the office.

When it was bedtime, the kids were shuffled off for baths and brushing teeth and bedtime stories (Jason demanded two, one from Nancy and Grant, one from John and Rodney).

Dave had trouble falling asleep that night, listened to Kathy’s soft breathing in the darkness, and wondered what tomorrow would bring, and if he had the power to stop any emotional disasters.

After the kids were dressed and fed, everyone piled into two cars to go to the hospital. Clara and Anna insisted on riding in the back of Rodney and John’s car with Jason, so Nancy and Grant rode with Dave and Kathy. Today they eschewed the chauffeur. Dave wanted to drive himself. Driving was soothing, and the drive from the house to the city was a pretty one. He had a feeling he might need the pretty countryside to help him calm down after what happened at the hospital.

A nurse showed them to Dad’s room, where he was dozing. She instructed them to be gentle with him, not to let him get too excited, and not to let the kids crawl all over him. 

John and Rodney waited in the hall after Rodney explained softly to Jason that John would be very upset to see his father like that. Jason kissed John on the cheek, then grabbed Nancy’s hand and followed her into the hospital room.

Dad woke at the sound of Anna and Clara calling for him, and he managed to sit up, give all the kids hugs. Because he was Patrick Sheppard, he was damn good at pretending, and his cheerful inquiries into his grandchildren’s welfare seemed perfectly ordinary, till right near the end, when he hugged them tightly again and told them he loved them, and he wanted them to always remember that.

Kathy and Grant escorted the kids outside to wait in the hallway with John and Rodney, and Dad beckoned Dave and Nancy close.

“David,” Dad said, “there’s something I need to tell you. If John were here, I’d tell him to. I need you to tell him for me.” He reached out and closed his hand over Dave’s, and Dave froze.

Dad had never held his hand, not since Dave was old enough to cross a street without Mom holding his hand.

“Dad -”   


“It’s about your mother,” Dad said, and David’s throat closed.

He swallowed hard. “Dad, John’s here.”

Dad raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“He’s outside,” Nancy said. “With Jason. He wanted to be here in case - in case we didn’t make it on time. Jason would need all his parents.”

“Bring him in here, son?”

Dave was reluctant to let go of his father’s hand. He caught Nancy’s eye, and she nodded, ducked out of the room.

Returned with John in tow. Rodney stood in the doorway for a moment before John murmured a dismissal and Rodney stepped back out, anger burning in his eyes.

“Your mother,” Dad said, “was Unmarked.”

“I know,” John said.

Dad frowned. “How -?”

“Because I’m Unmarked.” John’s voice was low, vicious. “And so is Jason.”

“John!” Nancy hissed, but it was too late.

Dad closed his eyes. “Then you know your mother -”

“Was murdered, yes,” John said.

Dad’s eyes flew open. “What?”

John began to recite, with eerie confidence, “ _ To: Patrick Sheppard, From: Anthony Smythe, PhD., Re: The mechanism of the car malfunction that killed Helena Sheppard, Date - _ ”

“John,” Dad cut in.

John was relentless. “Date: two weeks before Mom’s car ‘malfunctioned’.”

Nancy flinched back. “Maybe I should go -”

“No,” John said, “stay. Hear what Patrick Sheppard has to say about his beloved grandson, who’s as subhuman as his wife and younger son. Maybe he’ll finally get over himself and leave everything to his granddaughters. After all, they’re fully human.”

“How long have you known?” Dad asked.

“Since you gave Kathy the Sheppard Wife diamonds,” John said.

“Why did you say nothing?”

“And have you kill me too?”

“John,” Dad said, “I’m sorry.”

John stared at him for a long moment. Then he said, “Tell that to Mom.” He turned and left the room.

Dad sank back against the pillows. “Leave me be, please.”

“Dad,” Dave began, but Dad shook his head, waved him away.

So they went.

They were standing in the hallway a few minutes later, trying to explain to the kids that John was just very upset at seeing his father sick, when a blaring sound erupted from Dad’s room, and nurses and a crash cart arrived.

Kathy, Nancy, Rodney, and Grant immediately bundled the kids to the other end of the hallway to get out of the nurses’ way.

John and Dave stood in the doorway and listened to a doctor call time of death on their father.

Then, shoulder to shoulder, they walked away.


End file.
